Showing results for "Strangers" in Spiritual Growth

Abraham is a foundational figure in the history of the church. But he is at the same time profoundly human, raw and real. Isolated in an unbelieving world, his story shows what it means for the Lord to take hold of a sinner, privilege him with promises, use him in his service and sustain him to the end.

After meeting Jesus in person under amazing circumstances six years ago, Nick Cominsky figured life would be smooth sailing, not coasting downhill. Why didn’t Jesus tell him how to make the Christian life work? Just when Nick is stopped dead in his tracks - stranded on the side of the highway with an empty gas tank and miles to go - he finds himself in rich company once more. Jesus has returned to give Nick the refueling he desperately needs. And like their first meeting, it’s not at all what he expects.

When his truck slammed into a telephone pole and burst into flames, the seventeen-year-old became pinned in the driver seat. Moments before the vehicle was consumed by fire, Mike was pulled from the burning wreckage of twisted metal as his body burned. After his guitar was incinerated in the blaze, Pete Townsend from The Who, a musical inspiration, sent him a new guitar, offering, “This is the Phoenix.” In the wake of his Phoenix moment of rising from the ashes, Mike wanted to believe that his life had been saved for a unique purpose.

Jesus commands us to love our neighbors. So why are so many Christians taught to fear their neighbors? The American church is known as a people who are afraid, who have been nurtured through fear into hatred, and who have moved from hatred to violence - or at least to neglect. This fear, too often lived out boldly in the name of Jesus, is a false religion.